This invention relates to new and useful improvements in load handling attachments for vehicles such as tractors.
Various types of handling attachments have heretofore been devised for handling specific loads, including the balled root portions of small trees. Prior devices for this latter purpose are known which utilize clamping forks arranged to engage the balled portion of the trees, but such fork-like devices are not satisfactory in their use. That is, the fork-type arm, when clamping the ball portion of the tree, often penetrates the roots and causes damage to the tree and/or the covering material for the roots. In addition, fork-like arms do not hold the tree in a stable upright position, whereby the trunk of the tree can sometimes pivot on the clamp arms and the tree allowed to touch the ground or tilt against the tractor which damages the bark. U.S. Pat. No. 3,163,944 shows apparatus for digging and balling bushes or trees but such structure does not contain means capable of efficiently and safely grasping the balled portion of trees and maneuvering it out of a dug hole and onto transporting vehicles. Other U.S. patents have been granted for load handling devices, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,311,350, 4,177,000, 4,209,280, 4,212,577, 4,340,333, 4,516,905, and 4,573,858, but likewise the structures as shown in these patents, while serving their own purposes, could not efficiently and safely handle a balled tree.